“could it be essential?”; 2020 Study

“is emerging as an essential fatty acid”; 2022 Study

“(C15:0) is an essential odd-chain saturated fatty acid”; 2023 Study

“essential”, “newly identified nutritional C15:0 deficiency syndrome (“Cellular Fragility Syndrome”)“; 2024 Study

“emerged as…essential…required by animals to support both early development and long-term health”, “supporting cognitive health”; 2025 Study

Every single author of all 5 of these studies is either a co-founder / equity holder / advisor / funded by / an employee of the company that makes and promotes fatty15.
(except one recurring research collaborator from the U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program)

“If you’re here, chances are that you recently heard about fatty15, a healthy aging supplement containing C15:0. And you may be wanting to know if this supplement is legit.”

“Are there clinical trials supporting C15:0 & fatty15 benefits?”

“Yes, there are a growing number of clinical trials supporting C15:0 and fatty15’s health benefits.
Here’s a breakdown of the six clinical trials and seven studies to date:”

“Stallings et al. led a clinical trial with healthy humans to determine the oral bioavailability and pharmacokinetics of pure C15:0, the same ingredient provided in fatty15.”

“Participants were provided a single oral dose of C15:0 and showed that circulating C15:0 levels reliably increased.
For every 100 mg of ingested pure free fatty acid C15:0, C15:0 circulating levels increased on average by 1 ug/ml.”

Single, 2.5 gram acute MBT bolus; PK readouts only; no multi-dose curve; not about chronic supplementation.

“Mascarenhas et al. then led a clinical trial…to extensively model the oral bioavailability and pharmacokinetics of pure C15:0”

“…repeated findings from the Stallings et al. study. Namely, that
for every 100 mg of ingested pure free fatty acid C15:0, circulating C15:0 levels increased on average by 1 ug/ml.”

“Based on pharmacokinetic data, in which every 100 mg of C15:0 ingested results in an approximate 10 µM increase in circulating C15:0” [97,98].
- “Cellular Fragility Syndrome” Venn-Watson paper

“The authors concluded that pure free fatty acid C15:0 is, on average, 100% bioavailable.”

“While all three groups had lowered liver fat and body weight loss, the C15:0 supplemented group trended to having the greatest loss of liver fat and body fat. It is important to note, however, that these shared improvements among all three groups were not statistically significantly between the groups.”

“The authors conclude that C15:0 supplementation had early evidence of providing clinically relevant benefits related to lower LDL cholesterol and an improved gut microbiome.”

“This post-hoc analysis showed that, while all three groups had lower body weight and improved mood, the C15:0 supplemented group had the most significant improvement in mood.

“The authors conclude that C15:0 supplementation may have a positive effect on improving mood.”

Study quotes:

“Clinical Trial 6: Arghavani et al. led a cross-over clinical trial that included healthy adults to evaluate the potential effects of dairy fat diets, as well as individual fatty acid components within dairy fat, on blood pressure and vascular stiffness”. “This clinical trial showed the following:”

The 2025 paper by Arghavani et al. is a secondary analysis of data from an already‐conducted randomized crossover trial.

There is nothing in the original RCT about C15.

“The authors conclude that oral intake of high C15-containing supplements provides skin health benefits.”

“In fact, Dr. Schwimmer’s study showed that the more total C15:0 supplementation a person took over the 12 week time period, the higher their C15:0 levels.”

“Poor adherence to the daily fatty15 regimen explained about 80% of the difference between those who got up and over the nutritionally sufficient threshold.”

“Among participants who adhered to the protocol, their C15:0 levels increased…This group with raised C15:0 levels also had significantly improved liver function (lower ALT and AST), as well as raised hemoglobin, demonstrating improved red blood cell function.”

• These results are part of a non-randomized post-hoc responder exploratory subgroup analysis and are associative only and do not establish causality or clinical efficacy.

Body weight, BMI, Waist circumference, Hip circumference,

Systolic blood pressure, Diastolic blood pressure,

Fasting glucose, Fasting insulin,

Total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, Triglycerides,

C-reactive protein (CRP), Alanine aminotransferase (ALT), Aspartate aminotransferase (AST), Hemoglobin

In videos, skeptics go over two clinical trials (Robinson et al. and Chooi et al.) and incorrectly conclude that these trials were not in relevant populations and did not demonstrate efficacy.

Strangely, the skeptics made these statements while showing the papers’ abstracts, where the authors themselves concluded that C15:0 demonstrated promising results.

The skeptics do not mention any of the other five studies and four clinical trials provided above, in part because two are recent publications.